Huobi Cuts Ribbon On Its First Branch in Russia

By Prashant Jha

Huobi, a rather well-known crypto exchange based in Singapore, has launched its first Russian branch recently, in the first week of December 2018 itself.

A latest press release shared with media houses confirmed the news that Huobi Russia, as the exchange’s local wing is called, has managed to strike up a notable partnership while working out of its Moscow office. It is now collaborating with the Digital Transformation Center that works under the aegis of government-controlled Russian Development Bank (VEB). Huobi Cloud, which is the firm’s local exchange partnership programme, plays a pivotal role in this collaboration.

The Center of Digital Transformation, according to its own website, was created with the primary objective of encouraging blockchain technology and cryptocurrency-oriented projects. Earlier this year, in September, Huobi had set foot into the ecosystem powered by the VEB Innovation Foundation.

Around the same time, it also came on board to assist the Digital Transformation Center to formulate appropriate legal structures to encourage the crypto sector while reining in the excesses. At the time, the VEB Innovation Fund’s CEO had commented that Huobi’s knowledge base will help them to put together a:

“legal basis that could compete with current promising jurisdictions.”

On the day of the launch, David Chen, a senior executive of the Huobi Exchange, while addressing guests at a private event, reportedly stated that the setting up of shop in Russia will help Huobi to promote its

“leading technology and trading expertise to Russian users [alongside skills such as] unmatched safety, stability, and user experience.”

Andrei Grachev, the CEO of the Russian edition of the exchange has emphasized on how well the crypto market has been holding up in Russia, despite the continuing slump in overall market situation. In fact, it has recently managed to cross US trading volumes by a substantial margin as well.

Last month we had reported how the Huobi Exchange was ready to set up shop in Russia on 12th November. Although those plans have clearly undergone a delay, it seems Huobi has finally arrived in the promising crypto scene Russia presents.